Dredd to Thieftakers Volume 2- VICTORIANS
Recommendations: 6
About the Project
Last year I did a project converting the early 80s Judge Dredd board game by Ian Livingstone into an historical game. Instead of Judges and comic book villains I changed it to Georgian thieftakers and real life crimes and criminals in and around Nottingham. This time I'm moving the action into the next century dominated by the Victorians. Its interesting to see what crimes are still popular from the Georgian period and the characters breaking those laws. The big difference is that there is now a dedicated uniformed police force to bring them to justice.
Related Game: Judge Dredd: The Game Of Crime-Fighting In Mega-City One
Related Genre: Historical
This Project is Active
Crime Cards
As out Victorian Police men travel around Nottingham they will have to solve crimes that are typical from the time. Some of these are similar to the Georgian version of the game but what the Victorians saw as serious crimes has changed where they fall in points. So for example our minor crimes remain drunk and disorderly and breach of the peace. Both of these would increase during the industrial urbanization of the town. However Ive added Wife Wounding to this. For example one man was sent to Australia for 7 years for stealing 8p and another man slit his wifes neck open with a razor and got just 3 months. (she got better) indicating that money is more important than people. (obviously) 
Low level crimes that often received a few months in a House of Correction. Bigamy was easy to get away with in an age with less records and personnel information. The oldest profession wasnt going anywhere with even Court Judges being caught in the act. For those who prefer theior lovers to be a little more wooley bestiality would appear in county court trials. Smuggling highlights women using the dress sense of the time to bring elicit goods into prison to give to their husbands during visiting hours. Usually tobacco and Rum. 
Mid level crimes include shootings which were rare but did happen with even an old mayor pulling a gun on bailiffs who tried knocking on his door. Pistols that fired corn shot similar to cap guns were also responsible for a couple of deaths. Most shootings were accidents. Con artist tricks had started using the newspapers to advertise fake projects like the internet today. Uttering was being found in the possession of counter fit money. A crime once punishable by death but now just a few months in prison. Arson and poaching were also once hanging offences but still popular crimes in rural areas and landowners were keen to prosecute. Protection rackets were controlled by larger criminal groups such as the Lambs who also were used as political agitators during voting season. 
Despite the rise of the railway horse power was still important and horse theft not only made money but it gave you a getaway vehicle. Abortion in a backroom was an unfortunate occurrence for young women who were not married or those older women with too many children. A couple of abortionists who unfortunately caused the death of their patient faced the death penalty in Nottingham. House breaking not to be mistaken for burglary was a day time activity although the Victorians had numerous variations such as stealing from a dwelling house or stealing from your master which is stealing from work. 
Killing livestock could still get you transported until the 1860s while forgery was committed by educated criminals such as accountants who were using their positions to rob people usually without them realizing. Burglary was after 7 in the evening and was seen as a more serious form of breaking an entry as it was in the dark when poor residence were helpless in bed. The police formed plain clothes units that would go out at night looking for burglars. This was in November when darkness fell early. Murder was not as often as people think but usually involved arguments between coupleas and too much drink. A few did include money or just plain psychotic behavior. .Victorian Nottingham and Crime
For my first game I used a map of Nottingham from the 1820s but by 1901 the town had become a city. The map bellow shows the progress of the Victorians. The city has obviously grown with the edition of the railway and the predominant industry in textiles such as lace along with other big Nottingham employers such as Boots chemists and Players cigarettes. 
Victorian city development gives us some new locations on the map such as Arboretum parks, railway stations and gas works and water pumping stations. Lunatic asylums, prisons and police stations along with the same locations from my last game board. This new environment does reflect the crimes you would commonly see such as stealing from the new growth in shops and from employers textile mills. Theft from goods trains at the station had replaced highway robbery and drunkenness was a growing concern with violent crime growing in the home between drunk couples. Alcohol had a big part to play in violent crimes and murders. 
Between 1834 and 1878 seven men where hanged in public in Nottingham but all of them had committed murders in the county rather than in the town (City status was given in 1897) making them rural killers like an episode of midsummer murders. Killings in villages and woods around Nottingham but none in the town. In the 1880s that changed with killers originating from drunken killings of women by partners. By then the executions were private but it showed a change in crime. The biggest gap was 16 years in between executions so murder wasn't as common as people think. Despite this killings did happen in urban areas but the culprits were imprisoned usually due to mental health reasons rather than hanged. The Victorians were starting to recognize this more than their Georgian ancestors. 
Ill be making a list of "Perps" from the records giving me the best range of criminals from the era, from killers, abortionists, drunks, thieves and even a man caught having sex with a donkey. The assizes records are full of good candidates..Background inspiration
My last Dredd makeover game set in the 18th century went down really well with my colleagues who all work in the museum industry and allowed me to use images of them dressed up for some of the cards. It became a useful teaching tool to learn about the characters and crimes that make up the bulk of the content they talk about to school groups and customers. The only problem with my game is the board was too small to fit all the cards in the areas of the map. Lesson learned on that score.
The Shire Hall in Nottingham is now a museum where I have worked for 25 years now, so Ive picked up a bit of history over the years. The building was the courts and gaol for the county of Nottinghamshire up until 1986 but has a history dating back to the fourteen hundreds. By the Victorian age the last execution in public in Nottingham took place on the buildings front steps in 1864. A police station was first built next door in the mid Victorian period so you could be arrested tried and executed in one place.
Every criminal Ive put in both versions of the game were found guilty in the court room where the Assizes were held three times a year by a Judge. In the meantime inmates waited downstairs in the cells. If you got arrested in November the next court session was in March. Once guilty inmates were often sent elsewhere in the Victorian age. The House of Correction, Australian Colonies up until the 1860s, Prison or execution although that was just for murder in Nottingham once we get to the Victorians.
The less glamorous parts of the building where still Georgian in design but continued to be used as a gaol until the Government took over the running of prisons in 1878. So Criminals from both versions of the game would have slept in the same space but the way they were treated was different. People assume we have lots of records about the people kept here but when the building closed the records went with them. Over the years Ive had to research these individuals myself and so Ive picked my favorites to go in these games. All people who otherwise would be lost to history. 
The building today.
